leading Iraqi opposition leader and former banker, returned to his native soil in February, after 45 years in exile. In September, he demanded that the U.S. transfer some power to the Iraqi Governing Council, a marked shift from his historic coziness with the U.S. Chalabi, a leader of the Iraqi National Congress, was convicted of bank fraud in absentia by a Jordanian court in 1992 after the collapse of Petra Bank, which he opened in 1977.